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Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Medicine Man I: The Chief of All Time - An Interview with S.R. Howen

Shannon Running
Deer is American Indian by blood, he has forsaken his people's ancient ways to
embrace the "modern" world as a wealthy, highly successful trauma
surgeon.

His comfortable
existence begins to unravel when, seemingly by chance, Shannon finds himself
gradually drawn into the past. Pursued by an ancient evil, he knows he can
change the future, if he can survive the past.

S.R. Howen's
MEDICINE MAN is a distinctive and atmospheric novel full of spirituality,
mystical time travel, passion, and suspense.An Interview with S.R. Howen

What is your favorite non-writing
pastime?

I like to
garden and spend time outdoors, camping, or just sitting under e trees.Peaceful and away from the hustle and bustle
of modern life.

What has been your greatest
challenge as a writer? Have you been able to overcome it?

Writing
everyday, even when I wasn’t in the “mood.”I used to think I had to be in the zone to write, had to feel it.Too many things get in the way of that
thought process.Writing is a business,
while it is a creative endeavor, and I love the process, I had to train myself
to sit down and do it every day. I work toward goals, then once I no longer needed
to be in the mood, I set time limits on my writing sessions.

If you
had to sum it up Medicine Man I: The Chief of All Time in 30 or less words,
what would you say?

Dr. Shane Running Deer, is an
accomplished trauma surgeon. Raised on the reservation, and thought to be
destined to live as a Medicine Man for the tribe, Shane's life takes turns away
from traditional beliefs in favor of hard science . . . until he must return to
those ways to save himself and his people.

Without giving it all away, please
tell us a little something about how Shannon Running Deer is going to get
through their biggest challenge.

Running
Deer’s greatest challenge through out the entire book is himself.Facing his past, the future, and the things
that stand in the way of him getting what he wants.When faced with his greatest foe, he must
overcome is personal doubts, physical challenges, and survive alone with only
the skills he learned a long time in his past to survive.

What has been your greatest
challenge in writing Medicine Man I: The Chief of All Time?

Research.Not that finding information is hard, but I
wanted I to be a balance of contemporary and traditional, but didn’t want to
include anything that wasn’t already public knowledge, so every time I came up
with something I wanted to include I needed to research to make sure it fit
with what was already out there.

What message do you hope readers
take away from the book?

I don’t
know that I set out to tell a story with a specific message bt as the story
grew it became bout reconciling one’s past with the present and how that
affects the future.We are all products
of our past, whether we like it or not, and the only way to move forward is to
accept that—we are what our past made us.

Do you have to be alone or have
quiet to write?

I create y
own alone space.Every story I write has
a soundtrack, music that speaksme while
I write.So I wear sound dampening ear
buds, a don’t hear a thing other than the music.Family members startle me quite often by
touching my shoulder to get my attention I get so immersed in the world of the story.
I also don’t look at the screen while I write.

As a multi-genre author, how do you
juggle going back and forth between the different genres? Do you have a
preferred genre?

Oddly when
I start writing I don’t know what genre the book will be in.I start with a scene and just write, and
discover what genre it is as I go.Does
the main character get on a horse, or into a space ship?Does he whip out a magic spell and transform
a mouse into a sports car?As to my
favorite genre, I like to read mystery, but prefer to write fantasy.

Do you
have plans for a new book?Is this book
part of a series?

Ihave completed book tow of the
Medicine Man series and am editing it now.I have a general idea of where I want to go with book three but have not
completed it yet.

What has been your greatest pleasure
or personal success as an author?

I love
reviews.Even the ones that are not a
5.Any time I get a review I know I
touched someone deep enough to prompt them to speak out about what they read.

If
you could meet any writer, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you want
to know?

Edgar Allen PoeI have a dark side to most of my writing, but
people see me as very upbeat and positive so I’d like to know if he was as
tortured as his work makes him out to be.

What
was the last book that made you cry?

Anne Rice’s ViolinThe book struck me for some reason and made
me want to cry.

What appeals to you most about your
chosen genre?

Fantasy
and time travel appeal to me because you can go anywhere anytime and create
anything fantastical that you want.Dragons can be real, flying cars zoom around the sky, or sabertooth
tigers bed down with the hero . . .no limits to where and when you can go.

What is one trait you despise in
people that you tend to give your villains/protagonists?

Dishonesty.I have a real issue with lies.Not the little white lies (sure that dress
looks great!)But lies that hurt people
and deceptions that wound.So often my
villains personify his trait in new and creative ways.

Giveaway

S. R.
will be awarding a $10 Wild Child Publishing GC to a randomly drawn commenter
during the tour.

An Excerpt

The child blinked her large eyes. Not green now. Not glowing.
He’d been cursed on every hunt. Others landed fat deer, numerous quail, fat
rabbits and even the old men came upon a lost buffalo bull. He came home with a
thin half-starved squirrel, if luck favored him at all.

His wife cowered in the snow; her silent sobs made her shoulders
shake. Her fault. How else could this have happened? She never wanted the
others in their home. The mid-wife had never come to see them, and his wife
never went into the village center. She always stayed out here, away from
everyone else.

He knew what he had to do. He couldn’t lose what little he
had. When he started towards the circle of lodges and the bright central fire
of the meeting circle, his wife scrambled to her feet and started to follow
him, making noises that echoed in his head, but didn’t form words. She became
an annoying insect swarm of sound, and he smacked that sound away, taking step
after step through the blowing snow. He’d leave the child. He couldn’t kill it.
No, that would only make whatever evil had spawned it angrier. If he took his
wife and his belongings and left, the blizzard would hide them, no one would
even miss them if they ever realized they were there to start with.

For
more than 12 years, S.R. Howen has been an editor at Wild Child Publishing and
Freya’s Bower. She also runs workshops on how to craft a winning synopsis and
query letter.Over the last few months
S.R. Howen has been working on Medicne Man 2: Raven, as well as a second Forge
book for Freya's Bower under the pen name Shaunna Wolf.She is also working on an epic fantasy series
of books, and a Erotic Romance set in the 1980’s.Under her pen name Vic Ross she is working on
a SciFi humor series.

A
former military brat, then military spouse, and a traditional naturalist, S.R.
Howen currently lives in Texas, with a dozen cats (three of them the
non-domestic sort) two squirrles, one raccoon, one dog, and her daughter. She
works with wilf life rehab and rescue as well as running a cat shelter and
rescue. For more info on her and her works please visit her web site or her Facebook page.